That this Board requests that the Administration coordinate efforts with NStar to inventory the non-operating lights in West Somerville and make them operational as quickly as possible.

Information

Department:

Board of Aldermen

Sponsors:

Ward Six Alderman Rebekah L. Gewirtz

Category:

Resolution

Purposes:

Resolution

Official Text

That this Board of Aldermen requests that the Administration coordinate efforts with NSTAR to conduct an inventory of non-operating lights in West Somerville and take measures to have those lights made operational as quickly as possible.

Meeting History

Ms. Walsh told the members that NSTAR has repaired 125 lights in the past three weeks, leaving and additional 75 to be repaired. Those remaining lights are expected to be fixed by January.

The committee approved Alderman Connolly's motion that NSTAR provide the committee with a list of the addresses of the lights repaired and awaiting repair, along with a definition of what NSTAR considers "repair" to mean. Additionally, the motion calls for the listing to indicate whether a ballast problem is indicated for each light.

Mr. MacEachern told the members that NSTAR’s performance was unacceptable. As an example, Mr. MacEachern used the lists of defective lights and lights repaired, provided by NSTAR’s Community relations Representative, Annmarie Walsh, to verify their accuracy. Although the list of repaired lights was found to be accurate, an additional 126 lights were found to be in need of repair, raising the number of inoperable lights to between 300 to 400.

Mr. Koty explained that NSTAR changed its procedure of dealing with inoperable lights to a 3 prong process, or a series of eliminating steps, thereby extending the repair time. The DPW will request that the Traffic and Parking Department’s PCO’s report any lights that are out and discovered during their rounds.

Mr. Koty provided the committee with a list of inoperable lamps throughout the city and said that the city is negotiating to purchase the lights from NSTAR, adding that a purchase would not be made until all repairs have been completed. Mr. Zamparelli informed the members that some of the outages are long-standing due to underground wiring issues.